The Center for Biomedical Research/Research Centers at Minority Institutions Core Facility (CF) enhances multidisciplinary research infrastructure for Tuskegee University investigators by providing the resources, services, and technical support required to increase competiveness and strengthen the interdisciplinary components of biomedical research. These are important goals in light of the recently established multidisciplinary Ph.D. program in Integrative Biosciences. The CF will achieve these goals by accomplishing the following specific aims: 1) to provide instrumentation and well trained personnel in image acquisition and analysis, 2) to provide instrumentation and well trained personnel in cell sorting, 3) to provide instrumentation, facilities, and well trained personnel in molecular biotechnology and cell culture, 4) to develop and train personnel in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. Instrumentation and personnel to achieve the first three aims is essentially in place. The CF maintains and staffs an imaging facility providing most types of light microscopy, electron microscopy, and computer based digital image acquisition and analysis. Assistance and training in data collection, manipulation, analysis, and presentation are provided. The second aim is accomplished through utilization of a Coulter Elite flow cytometer and ancillary computer based analysis instrumentation. The third aim is achieved through instrumentation and personnel necessary for fundamental biotechnology and in vitro studies. Expansion of these capabilities has led to development of the fourth aim. Current trends in molecular biology are leading investigators to more quantitative technologies that demand manipulation, storage, analysis, and transmission of large quantities of data. In order to accomplish this, we will develop Bioinformatics capabilities housed in the Carver Research Foundation building with other CF laboratories and centered on genomics and microarray analysis (through an association with the Howell and Elizabeth Heflin Center for Human Genetics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham). The CF Bioinformatics core research facility will be networked with the Center for Computational Epidemiology, Bioinformatics, and Risk Analysis located in the School of Veterinary Medicine complex. Members of the CF staff will collaborate with investigators in areas of experimental design, sample preparation, and data acquisition, analysis, storage, transmission, and presentation.